Education News » Chicago Schoolshttp://www.educationnews.org
Education NewsTue, 02 May 2017 19:05:04 +0000en-UShourly1http://wordpress.org/?v=3.9.2Chicago District Fighting Lawsuit on Transgender Bathroom Accesshttp://www.educationnews.org/education-policy-and-politics/chicago-district-fighting-lawsuit-on-transgender-bathroom-access/
http://www.educationnews.org/education-policy-and-politics/chicago-district-fighting-lawsuit-on-transgender-bathroom-access/#commentsWed, 17 Aug 2016 18:00:30 +0000http://www.educationnews.org/?p=282819Although the argument over the use of locker rooms by transgender students was returned to Chicago’s federal courthouse this week, US Magistrate Judge Jeffrey T. Gilbert said he would not be ruling on the request immediately, according to WMAQ-TV. Lawyers representing a group of students and parents who had hoped Judge Gilbert would intervene want the judge […]

Author information

Grace Smith

Although the argument over the use of locker rooms by transgender students was returned to Chicago’s federal courthouse this week, US Magistrate Judge Jeffrey T. Gilbert said he would not be ruling on the request immediately, according to WMAQ-TV.

Lawyers representing a group of students and parents who had hoped Judge Gilbert would intervene want the judge to stop a transgender pupil from using the girls’ locker room. The defendants are Students and Parents for Privacy, which is an “unincorporated association” of 51 families with ties to the Palatine-based Township High School District 211.

The student is entering her senior year at William Fremd High School. She is female in every way, though she was born male, say attorneys for the school district. She has been using the girls’ restroom since August of 2013, and last December the district let the girl use the girls’ locker room after privacy curtains were installed. This senior is being called “Student A.”

One of the lawyers for Students and Parents for Privacy demanded that the judge understand “Student A is male.” He added that his clients have the right to expect their locker room to be “free of a male student.” He also insisted that there was no “subjective definition of sex.”

Sheila Lieber, an attorney for the US Department of Education, stated that Student A “is a female” who was discriminated against when she was” not allowed to use the female locker room” before December. A school district lawyer, Sally Scott, pointed out that Student A uses a bathroom stall to change her clothes “or doesn’t change.”

A locker room attendant is present, and pupils are allowed to use private areas to change their clothes. Privacy areas, however, are not being used, said Scott.

Students and Parents for Privacy lawyer Jeremy Tedesco countered that his clients were being bullied if they chose to use a privacy area, and if they object to Student A using the locker room they are told they are “narrow-minded.”

The lawsuit points out that Title IX actually mandates that schools retain single-sex restrooms and locker rooms, and it is being redefined by the Department of Education.

“Every parent sends their kids to school expecting that the school is going to protect them at the most basic level—their safety, their privacy, their dignity, What we’re asking for is a temporary injunction that will allow the girls to continue to have single-sex facilities to themselves, free from the presence of the male students while the case is pending.”

Mr. Tedesco is an attorney at the nonprofit organization Alliance Defending Freedom. This conservative group, along with the Thomas More Society, took the first step in filing the lawsuit. Earlier this year, the Education Department and the Justice Department warned the district that their federal funding could be taken away.

During the hearing, Lieber said:

“They’ve not come up with one example of concrete harm, let alone as to why they need relief now. The Department of Education is not required to adhere to plaintiffs’ one-dimensional definition of sex.”

Recently, North Carolina’s House Bill 2 was challenged as well. This bill requires all residents of the state to use the bathrooms and locker rooms that coincide with their biological gender. And this month in Virginia, a school system was allowed by the Supreme Court to keep its bathrooms segregated temporarily based on the gender listed on the person’s birth certificate.

It is not known when Judge Gilbert will present a ruling, but Tedesco said the issue is time-sensitive due to the opening of schools nationwide.

Wording in the lawsuit states that allegedly girls in the school “live in constant anxiety, fear and apprehension that a biological boy will walk in at any time while they are using the locker rooms and showers and see them in a state of undress or naked.”

Both the ACLU of Illinois and the Illinois Safe Schools Alliance intervened in this case. The ACLU sent a letter on behalf of the students and parents who support transgender pupils, pleading with the district to challenge the lawsuit and stand up for the policies that have already been put in place and have caused no disturbance, reports ProgressIllinois.

Author information

Grace Smith

]]>http://www.educationnews.org/education-policy-and-politics/chicago-district-fighting-lawsuit-on-transgender-bathroom-access/feed/0Rauner E-mail Called Chicago Teachers Illiterate, Principals Incompetenthttp://www.educationnews.org/education-policy-and-politics/rauner-e-mail-called-chicago-teachers-illiterate-principals-incompetent/
http://www.educationnews.org/education-policy-and-politics/rauner-e-mail-called-chicago-teachers-illiterate-principals-incompetent/#commentsTue, 26 Jul 2016 14:30:20 +0000http://www.educationnews.org/?p=281568Emails released by Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s administration under a court order show that Illinois Governor Bruce Rauner told some of the wealthiest and most influential civic leaders in Chicago that half of public school teachers there are “virtually illiterate” and half of the principals are “incompetent.” The emails were sent five years ago during Rauner’s time […]

Author information

Kristin Decarr

Emails released by Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s administration under a court order show that Illinois Governor Bruce Rauner told some of the wealthiest and most influential civic leaders in Chicago that half of public school teachers there are “virtually illiterate” and half of the principals are “incompetent.”

The emails were sent five years ago during Rauner’s time as a private equity executive and active participant in Chicago school reform. The comments were made as part of a discussion among educational reform activists that had been connected to the nonprofit Chicago Public Education Fund.

“Teacher evaluation is critically important, but in a massive bureaucracy with a hostile union, where 50% of principals are managerially incompetent and half of teachers are virtually illiterate, a complete multi-dimensional evaluation system with huge subjectivity in it will be attacked, manipulated and marginalized — the status quo will prevail,” Rauner wrote in a December 2011 email arguing for a strong system of teacher and principal evaluations in the district. “It’s much more critical that we develop a consistent, rigorous, objective, understandable measure and reporting system for student growth upon which all further evaluation of performance will depend.”

Lance Trover, a spokesman for Rauner, has issued an apology on behalf of the governor, stating that change, especially within public education, can be slow. He went on to say that the email in question was sent during a time of slow change and was written quickly without careful thought. He apologized on behalf of the governor “for making an unfair, untrue comment,” writes Lauren Fitzpatrick for The Chicago Sun Times.

Meanwhile, Chicago Teachers Union President Karen Lewis called the statements made by Rauner both “ridiculous” and “silly.” Lewis, who, as Rauner did, graduated from Dartmouth College, asked how she could be considered to be illiterate when she has the same degree as Rauner, reports Bill Ruthhart for The Chicago Tribune.

The emails in which the comments were made were included in a request made of Emanuel’s office by the Chicago Tribune over a year ago in connection to a report it was conducting on a $20.5 million no-bid CPS principal training program that had to do with former district CEO Barbara Byrd-Bennett’s guilty plea to federal fraud charges.

The mayor’s office had withheld a number of emails and heavily editing others before releasing them, causing the Tribune to sue the Emanuel administration. Just this week, Cook County Judge Anna Demacopoulos ruled the mayor’s office was in violation of the state’s open records laws and ordered the emails to be released.

Rauner had previously been head of the nonprofit education fund, which had provided money for a CPS training program through SUPES Academy. The education fund currently works with CPS through offering financial support to major programs. The Rauner emails, which were also sent to then-deputy chief of staff for education, were included in the request due to their reference to SUPES.

The emails had been completely withheld by Emanuel’s administration, who argued they were not subject to the state’s open records law.

Author information

Kristin Decarr

]]>http://www.educationnews.org/education-policy-and-politics/rauner-e-mail-called-chicago-teachers-illiterate-principals-incompetent/feed/0Fingerprints, Biometics Introduced in Illinois School Cafeteriahttp://www.educationnews.org/k-12-schools/fingerprints-biometics-introduced-in-illinois-school-cafeteria/
http://www.educationnews.org/k-12-schools/fingerprints-biometics-introduced-in-illinois-school-cafeteria/#commentsThu, 21 Jul 2016 11:30:46 +0000http://www.educationnews.org/?p=281372Students in a school located in the suburbs of Chicago will be able to order lunch items in the cafeteria with a fingerprint scan this fall under a new system that will make use of biometrics. Lake Zurich Community Unit School District 95 will be joining several other school districts in the area that currently use […]

Author information

Kristin Decarr

Students in a school located in the suburbs of Chicago will be able to order lunch items in the cafeteria with a fingerprint scan this fall under a new system that will make use of biometrics.

Lake Zurich Community Unit School District 95 will be joining several other school districts in the area that currently use the technology. School district officials have said the biometric payment system will allow the cafeteria to run more efficiently by helping students check out faster because they will no longer need to make use of wallets or ID cards.

However, civil liberties groups believe that such systems could come at a cost to students’ privacy. Those concerned have cited a number of lawsuits that companies in the private sector are dealing with on the topic of biometrics, which involves the scanning of fingerprints, retinas, and facial and voice recognition in order to identify an individual.

Security researchers have continuously shown since 2002 that not only governments, but criminals, and anyone who has access to the right material, can fake a fingerprint in order to access digital devices and authentication systems. Whereas students could change a personal identification number that was compromised, they cannot change their fingerprints.

Illinois is one of just two states that regulate biometrics in the private sector. The Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA) was passed by the state in 2008, which does not allow the collection or storage of biometric information by private companies, including fingerprints and facial recognition, without first receiving informed, written consent, writes Christine Won for The Chicago Tribune.

“The option of using biometric is being implemented as a convenience to avoid issues with the need to carry and retain a payment card,” said district board President Doug Goldberg. “It is one option of the payment system and is not mandatory to use.”

A report by CR80 News found that since its original launch in 2014, less than 15% of students in Geneva District 304 have opted out of the fingerprint scanning system, and no privacy or security conflicts have come up.

A number of cost-effective options were discussed prior to the approval of the biometric system in February. Goldberg said the main goal is to ensure that lunch payments are streamlined for students and are easier on the parents who provide the funds for their accounts. Fingerprinting technology was decided upon, offered through Pushcoin, after the decision was made to phase out the current food-service software in use in the district.

Pushcoin is a cloud-based centralized payment system that includes a school webstore, a parent portal, an administrative site, and a point-of-sale app, according to co-founder and CEO Anna Lisznianski. So far, the company has worked with close to 100 schools on implementing the system.

A letter was sent to parents in the district in March highlighting a number of features including the mobile-friendly website, email notifications when a balance is too low, the option to check transaction history, and the ability to transfer funds from one child to another. Parents were also informed that students would be able to use the fingerprint system to record purchases without the need for a card or manual entry.

In addition, the letter said the new system would offer a faster checkout process for students and added protection against fraudulent activity.

Author information

Kristin Decarr

]]>http://www.educationnews.org/k-12-schools/fingerprints-biometics-introduced-in-illinois-school-cafeteria/feed/0Chicago Schools Scramble to Deal with Lead Contaminationhttp://www.educationnews.org/k-12-schools/chicago-schools-scramble-to-deal-with-lead-contamination/
http://www.educationnews.org/k-12-schools/chicago-schools-scramble-to-deal-with-lead-contamination/#commentsThu, 23 Jun 2016 17:00:31 +0000http://www.educationnews.org/?p=280021At Mather High School in Chicago’s West Rogers Park, Chicago Public Schools CEO Forrest Claypool pledged to CPS, parents, and city officials that the financially-strapped district would pay whatever is necessary to eliminate the lead from water sources, to develop methods to test schools’ water on a regular basis, and to flush pipes at CPS […]

Author information

Grace Smith

At Mather High School in Chicago’s West Rogers Park, Chicago Public Schools CEO Forrest Claypool pledged to CPS, parents, and city officials that the financially-strapped district would pay whatever is necessary to eliminate the lead from water sources, to develop methods to test schools’ water on a regular basis, and to flush pipes at CPS physical plants.

The question is whether there will be money to do so, reports Juan Perez, Jr. for the Chicago Tribune. Officials said water-quality tests have not yet determined whether specific fixtures are more apt to deliver high levels of toxic lead than others. One member of the meeting’s audience said parents want to be reassured.

Claypool replied:

“We’ll spend whatever it takes to remove any devices or any piping that might pose lead hazard risk. Whatever that is, however much it costs, we will do it to make sure that our water pipes are safe and that our children, your children, are safe.”

Although all test results have not come in, 27 schools had at least one faucet that delivered water with lead levels higher than 15 parts per billion. The Food and Drug Administration regulates bottled water, which can contain lead levels no higher than five parts per billion.

Claypool said it was too early to ascertain how much repairs will cost CPS, but the district is using its “credit card” to pay for testing thus far.

The water crisis in Flint, Michigan, discovered because of a change in water sources and a failure to take measures to combat corrosion, became the catalyst for renewed attention to lead contamination in public water supplies.

Public exposure to lead has decreased in recent decades due to the education of the public concerning leaded gasoline and lead-based paint. But there are no federal laws requiring schools to test for lead in water, and there is no enforceable limit to the amount of lead that can be discerned in school tap water.

The EPA and the CDC say there is no safe level of lead exposure. Contaminated water, say experts, can damage developing brains and pose additional risks to children.

The fixtures that have elevated levels of lead have been removed. But parents are questioning whether or not the district moved quickly enough. Chicago Water Management’s Gary Litherland said CPS moved swiftly to adopt a program and address the problems.

District leaders said all schools on all campuses will be tested, and parents will be informed as to the results of the measurements, reports Elizabeth Matthews for Fox32 Chicago.

According to the Chicago Sun-Times’ Lauren Fitzpatrick, Claypool acknowledged that there was no budget for repairs and no way of knowing how much all repairs will cost when discovered and restored.

CPS has prioritized 324 elementary schools that were built before 1986, the year when lead pipes were banned, have cooking kitchens, or have a pre-K program. Cognitive issues have been linked to lead contamination in very young children.

District Chief Facilities Officer Jason Kierna said there was no noticeable pattern to the lead level patterns in the district’s schools.

“In the testing protocols we’ve gone through now, we have not been able to trend out any specific type of fountain or specific type of piping … where we can apply that across the district,” Kierna said.

Author information

Grace Smith

]]>http://www.educationnews.org/k-12-schools/chicago-schools-scramble-to-deal-with-lead-contamination/feed/0From San Francisco to Chicago, Urban Farming Schools Appearhttp://www.educationnews.org/k-12-schools/from-san-francisco-to-chicago-urban-farming-schools-appear/
http://www.educationnews.org/k-12-schools/from-san-francisco-to-chicago-urban-farming-schools-appear/#commentsThu, 09 Jun 2016 19:00:31 +0000http://www.educationnews.org/?p=279212A school in San Francisco is about to become the first urban farming public education setting in the country as students at the Golden Bridges School learn about the role that urban farms can play in the community. Katie Pohlman of EcoWatch writes that the new campus will combine indoor and outdoor learning areas and include various advantageous […]

Author information

Grace Smith

A school in San Francisco is about to become the first urban farming public education setting in the country as students at the Golden Bridges School learn about the role that urban farms can play in the community.

Katie Pohlman of EcoWatch writes that the new campus will combine indoor and outdoor learning areas and include various advantageous and environmentally friendly features.

The school will be moved to a property that is already an urban farm, begun six years ago by Caitlyn Galloway, according to the San Francisco Examiner. It was Galloway’s hope to give the community proof that urban farming could be a viable business option while also creating unity within the neighborhood.

Galloway succeeded, and she now sells enough produce from her Little City Gardens farm to cover her farming budget and to give partial incomes to herself and another gardener. Her farm supplies produce to local restaurants, and Golden Bridges School students often assist Galloway on her urban farm.

Now the school has bought her land and is planning to build its new campus there. Currently, the school serves students in K-2 but is looking forward to adding grades 3-8 at the new venue.

But the residents living in the surrounding neighborhood, Mission Terrace, have questions and concerns. Traffic control, noise pollution, and the possibility of increased flooding are the main worries. Architect Stanley Saitowitz of Natoma Architects, Inc. and the school are taking these matters seriously and have designed systems for managing floods and are addressing sound control as well. Saitowitz is handling the concerns in a predictable way – with plants.

The entrance to the school will be built back from the sidewalk to provide a community meeting area and green space. The building itself will slope up to mimic a hill and will be covered with plants to resemble the green space in front. In fact, 74% of the school’s footprint will remain open for students to play and learn.

If civilization wants to ensure a sustainable future where citizens are connected to their food and the land, it is crucial that a generation of children understand how to be responsible stewards of the earth, writes Jill Fehrenbacher of Inhabitat, who says this is the reason the urban farm school is vital.

The students will study an ecology farm curriculum based on Waldorf Education, which is focused on creativity, learning-by-doing, crafts, storytelling, and the natural world. Waldorf is also significantly against plastic, electronics, and technological devices. It is based on the 19th-century philosopher Rudolph Steiner’s vision to develop the “whole individual.”

The Golden Bridges School also has a social justice vision that supports a “pay-what-you-can” tuition formula. Its goal is to develop an economic diversity among the student body. One-third of the student body attends the school on scholarship, and another third of the families are providing tuition assistance.

The multi-purpose room, an atrium-like facility, will serve as an area for lunchtime and recess. The room can be closed off for performances or classroom usage. The Golden Bridges School website adds that the rear yard will serve as the kindergarten play area, an orchard, an edible garden, a chicken coop, an outdoor kitchen and eating spot, and a “wild” space for classroom nooks.

And in Chicago, the Academy for Global Citizenship, a charter school, with 90% minority students in a Southwest neighborhood, is also building a new campus that will include a three-acre farm and renewable systems. The school will produce more power than the school will use.

Fast Company’s Co.Exist site writer Adele Peters reports that the school already serves 100% organic food. It is the first in Chicago to do so. When the new school is built, many of the meals will come from the campus’ outside gardens.

The building, designed by Chicago’s Studio Gang architects, will collect and store water and have solar, geothermal, and wind energy sources. The building alone will be a STEM lab.

The school will also offer services to other schools that choose to emulate the architectural design as a model.

Author information

Grace Smith

]]>http://www.educationnews.org/k-12-schools/from-san-francisco-to-chicago-urban-farming-schools-appear/feed/0Illinois Ends Legislative Session Without Budget, Education Planhttp://www.educationnews.org/education-policy-and-politics/illinois-ends-legislative-session-without-budget-education-plan/
http://www.educationnews.org/education-policy-and-politics/illinois-ends-legislative-session-without-budget-education-plan/#commentsFri, 03 Jun 2016 19:00:52 +0000http://www.educationnews.org/?p=278927The Chicago state Senate has rejected Gov. Bruce Rauner’s (R) and House Speaker Mike Madigan’s (D) request to pass a makeshift budget and has voted against a competing financial plan written by Democratic leaders. Tina Sfondeles reports for the Chicago Sun-Times that there was not even a decision on how to fund K-12 education even […]

Author information

Grace Smith

The Chicago state Senate has rejected Gov. Bruce Rauner’s (R) and House Speaker Mike Madigan’s (D) request to pass a makeshift budget and has voted against a competing financial plan written by Democratic leaders.

Tina Sfondeles reports for the Chicago Sun-Times that there was not even a decision on how to fund K-12 education even after last-minute efforts by Illinois Senate President John Cullerton to pass legislation.

Cullerton’s plan would have raised funding for K-12 education across the state by $900 million and given $475 million more to Chicago Public Schools.

As the debate continued, House Rep. Jack Franks (D-Marengo) expressed the terrible consequences of a budget not having been passed:

“Real people are going to suffer. Real people are going to die. This is a matter of life and death.”

Even so, Republicans maintained that the education bill was a “Chicago bailout.” The last day of the session set a dramatic example of an apparent financial meltdown that seems destined to continue. Meanwhile, universities and social services continue to struggle to stay viable.

There was a glimmer of hope when the Senate passed an education funding plan 37-19, but the bill failed badly in the House with a 24-92 vote.

Before the schools’ plan failed to pass, Senate Democrats voted against their own Democratic leaders’ budget plan 17-31. The plan would have funded schools and social services, but would have included a $7 billion shortage.

Cullerton told reporters that he was positive that he could get a temporary budget in a week’s time that would carry the state through to January. He even stated that he would work with the governor to ensure the budget would be signed by Rauner.

In the same amount of time that Illinois has failed to come up with a budget, several states nationwide have completed two budgets, reports Mike Riopell of the Daily Herald.

Rauner is blaming majority Democrats for not passing a balanced budget. Madigan and Cullerton insist that Rauner is placing schools, social services, and other state programs in harm’s way by advancing legislation that they insist is hurting the middle class.

The governor’s Budget Director Tim Nuding said the stopgap budget that Rauner initiated would have given schools funding and provided some services with funding, such as domestic violence shelters that have had no funding since the stalemate began.

But the House and Senate Democrats did not act on the plan on Tuesday, saying they would, however, continue to work until a resolution could be attained.

Pete Kalenik of Chicago shared his views on the state’s budget woes in an opinion piece in the Chicago Tribune. He began by saying that Illinois lawmakers continue to debate whether or not to shift tax revenue to poverty-level communities from wealthier districts, as the governor hides in the shadow of the intricacies of funding education.

Kalenik added that Rauner seems to believe that children of veteran and military families are not deserving of the same level of resources as civilian families. Some of the areas affected most harshly by his public school funding proposal are areas around Rock Island Army Arsenal and the Navy’s Great Lakes training center.

Rauner’s plan also disproportionately harms minority communities in Chicago and East St. Louis. These areas are also highly concentrated with Illinois’ veteran population.

The writer, who is a soldier, adds that his military brothers and sisters are not serving their country to see any group be discriminated against, but especially not young people, minorities, or veterans.

“Never leave a fallen comrade is our ethos. As veterans, we expect our governor to extend the same ethos to our children. It is the least he can do in return for his freedom.”

Author information

Grace Smith

]]>http://www.educationnews.org/education-policy-and-politics/illinois-ends-legislative-session-without-budget-education-plan/feed/0As Strike Looms, CTU’s Lewis Calls Rauner an ‘ISIS Recruit’http://www.educationnews.org/education-policy-and-politics/as-strike-looms-ctus-lewis-calls-rauner-an-isis-recruit/
http://www.educationnews.org/education-policy-and-politics/as-strike-looms-ctus-lewis-calls-rauner-an-isis-recruit/#commentsFri, 22 Apr 2016 14:00:16 +0000http://www.educationnews.org/?p=276966Chicago Teachers Union President Karen Lewis, who may be leading a strike in the very near, had plenty to say about Illinois Governor Bruce Rauner (R) this week. Not only did she call the governor a liar, she also accused him of being an ISIS recruit because of his “acts of terror on Chicago’s poor […]

And CTU members boarded buses along with other labor union members and supporters to travel to the state capital and march on the Capitol and the Executive Mansion to lobby for more funding for education, reports Juan Perez, Jr. for the Chicago Tribune.

The incendiary speech by Lewis followed the union’s rejection of contract recommendations from an independent arbitrator, which could lead to a strike as early as next month.

The union has been in talks with the school board for over a year in an attempt to replace a contract that became invalid on June 30, 2015.

Claypool all but begged Lewis to agree to “final and binding interest arbitration in lieu of a strike,” and added that he could not see how a strike could solve the many issues that face CPS.

Part of Lewis’s speech included a stab at Rauner for using his influence to get his daughter into the highly respected Walter Payton High School instead of having her enrolled in New Trier, the Winnetka public school near one of Rauner’s homes, according to Mitch Dudek of the Chicago Sun-Times.

“With nine houses, who knows where he and his children actually lived when he clouted his daughter in that school,” Lewis said.

Lewis added that cutting educators’ compensation is not the way to handle the glaring financial difficulties facing CPS. Until the governor finds a “stable, sustainable, and increasing revenue,” not even the “mayor’s handpicked” school board can afford any contract proposal.

The union is also calling for the creation of a progressive Illinois income tax and an elected school board in Chicago.

The crowd that assembled in Springfield numbered over 1,000, and all, teachers, retirees, activists and union members, were there to spotlight the 10-month budget battle that has forced layoffs in higher education and a possible closure of Chicago State University, report Sophia Tareen and Ashley Lisenby for the Associated Press.

Rauner and Democratic lawmakers are at a standoff over a budget that should have been in place when the fiscal year began in July. Rauner wants reforms that will attract and retain businesses. Democrats want a tax increase and disagree with Rauner on many of his ideas such as changes to collective bargaining.

The governor says his spending plan would give public schools $120 million more for next year. But, under his guidelines, universities may see reductions in funding and CPS could lose $74 million. CPS is already carrying a $1 billion deficit.

Legislators are also discussing Democrat-backed measures for a graduated income tax and a sweeping change to the state’s outdated school funding formula.

Author information

Grace Smith

]]>http://www.educationnews.org/education-policy-and-politics/as-strike-looms-ctus-lewis-calls-rauner-an-isis-recruit/feed/0500 Kids Mistakenly Accepted to Top Chicago Public Schoolhttp://www.educationnews.org/k-12-schools/500-kids-mistakenly-accepted-to-top-chicago-public-school/
http://www.educationnews.org/k-12-schools/500-kids-mistakenly-accepted-to-top-chicago-public-school/#commentsSun, 10 Apr 2016 20:00:33 +0000http://www.educationnews.org/?p=276280An “unidentified internal error” in enrolling transfer students in Chicago has ended with Chicago Public Schools telling hundreds of families that their children had been accepted for a seat in the exceptional North Side school this week when, in fact, they had not. LaSalle Elementary magnet school campus, located in the Old Town neighborhood, had only […]

Author information

Grace Smith

An “unidentified internal error” in enrolling transfer students in Chicago has ended with Chicago Public Schools telling hundreds of families that their children had been accepted for a seat in the exceptional North Side school this week when, in fact, they had not.

LaSalle Elementary magnet school campus, located in the Old Town neighborhood, had only 16 spots available, but CPS sent 512 acceptance letters to families who had applied for LaSalle’s first through eighth grades.

“When the error was discovered, CPS immediately called and emailed all families that received an incorrect notification,” CPS spokesman Michael Passman said in a statement. “District staff is working with families individually to help identify alternate options for their children.”

The mistake is just another frustration that relates to gaining access to Chicago’s selective public school programs. The struggle has created a pressure cooker environment for parents.

The Chicago Tribune’s Juan Perez, Jr. reports that Wendy Donahue, a resident of the Old Town neighborhood and a former Tribune editor and reporter, said the process is bewildering. Her nine-year-old daughter’s offer to attend LaSalle was withdrawn.

Donahue said her daughter was already in a private school that her daughter and the family liked, but, she added, the process is embittering.

CPS officials say they are calling all the families that have been affected. But the parents’ options can be complicated now since many have already rejected offers from other schools. CPS said it would explore options for and with parents to have some of the offers reinstated.

CPS Admissions Official Kathryn Ellis explained in an email to the affected families:

“The application and enrollment process is an emotional time for many families, and I want to assure you that we will work individually with your family to make sure you understand your options.”

Kindergarten acceptances for LaSalle were not going to be affected by the mistake, and LaSalle was the only school where these errors occurred.

Applicants for admission to LaSalle are chosen through a computerized lottery, with priority given to those who have siblings at the school already. Forty percent of the remaining spots are awarded to families who live in a 1.5 miles radius of the school.

The disappointment of having students’ applications rescinded is magnified by the fact that LaSalle is CPS’s top-rated school. At LaSalle, children can take nine years of Italian, Spanish, Mandarin Chinese, or French. The school’s capacity is approximately 550.

Another parent, Stacy Davis Gates, called the whole process “insane.” Her seven-year-old son was put on wait-lists for all other schools because his neighborhood school was overcrowded, and now that his LaSalle acceptance has been rescinded, his mom says they are out of alternatives.

To add insult to injury, the letters were delayed by a few days because of the furlough day last week and the preparation for the one-day strike on April 1st, reports Lauren Fitzpatrick of the Chicago Sun-Times.

LaSalle’s student body is 30% black, 20% Hispanic, and 8% Asian. Approximately 30% of the students are low-income. The school has a relatively new principal, Beth Bazer, who took the job after longtime Principal Elizabeth Heurtefeu left the Chicago Public School system in May 2015 and criticized the district for over-testing Chicago’s students, according to DNAinfo’s Ariel Cheung and Mina Bloom.

Author information

Grace Smith

]]>http://www.educationnews.org/k-12-schools/500-kids-mistakenly-accepted-to-top-chicago-public-school/feed/0Illinois’ Manar Brings Forth Education Funding Planhttp://www.educationnews.org/education-policy-and-politics/illinois-manar-brings-forth-education-funding-plan/
http://www.educationnews.org/education-policy-and-politics/illinois-manar-brings-forth-education-funding-plan/#commentsSun, 10 Apr 2016 12:00:43 +0000http://www.educationnews.org/?p=276261Illinois state Sen. Andy Manar (D-Bunker Hill) is introducing what has become his annual legislation aimed at overhauling the manner in which Illinois public schools are funded. His latest iteration, which he filed on Wednesday, addresses criticism of his previous versions and explain statements made by Gov. Bruce Rauner (R) about education funding, writes Dan […]

Author information

Grace Smith

Illinois state Sen. Andy Manar (D-Bunker Hill) is introducing what has become his annual legislation aimed at overhauling the manner in which Illinois public schools are funded.

His latest iteration, which he filed on Wednesday, addresses criticism of his previous versions and explain statements made by Gov. Bruce Rauner (R) about education funding, writes Dan Petrella, reporting for Pantagraph.

The new bill would ensure that no school district will be getting less funding for the next school year than it did for this academic year. Manar calls this the “hold harmless” provision, and it is not making wealthier districts in the state happy. The provision would eventually be taken out of the bill over four years.

Manar’s proposal is attempting to send more money to districts that need it the most, especially those that have a sizable number of kids from low-income families, children with disabilities, and students learning English as a second language.

Currently, the system relies to a large extent on local property taxes, allowing some districts to spend a whopping $30,000 per student while other districts scrape by paying $6,000 per pupil, said Manar.

The bill would add Chicago Public Schools into the same system as other districts across the state and would allow the state to pay the employer portion of Chicago teachers’ pensions, which it already does for the rest of Illinois.

Dusty Rhodes of Illinois Public Radio quoted the senator:

“If you’re a district that has a 90 percent poverty rate, it’s gonna take a little more resources to produce the same outcome as a district that has a 5 percent poverty rate,” Manar says. “Now, I’m not making this up. Every expert, every scholarly work of writing will tell you that.”

Manar added that the measure included every concept that the governor has discussed as he has traveled across the state to school districts over the last two months.

Rauner had already asserted that he supported the general concept of the bill, but he did not want to “pit school districts against one another.”

Manar will be introducing his revised proposal, but a House task force continues to hold hearings concerning changes to the formula. The House task force’s hearing is slated for April 12, reports the Rockford Register Star’s Doug Finke.

The new effort to rewrite the state’s school aid formula comes after years of concern that school districts with a diminished ability to raise property tax money fall further behind districts that are property tax wealthy.

Manar said the proposal was meant to “erase and correct what is undoubtedly the worst and most regressive system for funding public education” in the nation.

A Chicago Public Schools spokesperson said the manner in which the state funds schools means that Chicago’s lowest income students, mainly minorities, are not getting enough funding to get an education.

But Republicans called the bill a “bailout” for the economically-challenged CPS. And House Speaker Michael Madigan (D-Chicago) said through his spokesperson that the pick-up of additional pension costs was concerning. That statement does not bode well for the bill’s success in the House, where Democrats are busily creating a funding proposal of their own.

Author information

Grace Smith

]]>http://www.educationnews.org/education-policy-and-politics/illinois-manar-brings-forth-education-funding-plan/feed/0Chicago Teachers, Labor Unions Join for One Day Strike Actionhttp://www.educationnews.org/k-12-schools/chicago-teachers-labor-unions-join-for-one-day-strike-action/
http://www.educationnews.org/k-12-schools/chicago-teachers-labor-unions-join-for-one-day-strike-action/#commentsSat, 02 Apr 2016 20:00:27 +0000http://www.educationnews.org/?p=275970What Chicago Public Schools teachers called a “Day of Action” took place as planned on Friday while morning classes were canceled and picket lines were formed. After the teachers gathered in front of their schools, they marched and chanted their way to college campuses while raising signs and playing instruments. Both college and public school educators […]

Author information

Grace Smith

What Chicago Public Schools teachers called a “Day of Action” took place as planned on Friday while morning classes were canceled and picket lines were formed. After the teachers gathered in front of their schools, they marched and chanted their way to college campuses while raising signs and playing instruments.

Both college and public school educators were protesting budget cuts, a lack of state funding, and the contract negotiation impasse between the union and CPS, with 45 community groups and the Service Employees International Union joining the Day of Action. This type of solidarity is rare in the US, and the union’s broad movement for increased revenue is what Nika Knight of CommonDreams called “uncharted territory.”

Demonstrators, including college students and Chicago’s youthful activists, stood alongside Chicago Teachers Union President Karen Lewis, Rev. Jesse Jackson, teachers, and community organization supporters to press for funding from the state for Chicago State University on the Far South Side. Currently, CS University is in the midst of a financial emergency and is expectied to be forced to lay off employees.

“This is a day that Chicago State’s budget is in jeopardy, but the Cook County jail budget is secure,” Jackson said. “They plan to lock up and not to lift up, because somebody knows that strong minds break strong chains. We will not let them break our sprits,” Jackson said. “This school will not be closed. The governor may go, but Chicago State will stay.”

At Northeastern Illinois University, a New Orleans-type funeral parade was staged with mourners carrying a skeleton, tombstone signs, and a coffin representing the death of higher education.

Natalia Rokita, a student at Northeastern Illinois, is facing twice the frustration this situation produces because her son goes to kindergarten at Farnsworth Elementary in Jefferson Park. She noted that she is shocked that people do not want to support public education financially, report Juan Perez, Jr., Marwa Eltagouri, Leonor Vivanco, and Jeane Kuang of the Chicago Tribune.

Rokita continued by pointing out that people rely on public education, particularly in Chicago and the state of Illinois. She picketed on her campus in support of her learning and her son’s education.

Gov. Bruce Rauner stated that it was shameful to make Chicago’s children the victims in this political power play. Walking out on children, causing parents to be left helpless, and disrespecting taxpayers, he said, were arrogant actions taken by those who held children’s futures in their hands.

Meanwhile, Rauner and Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel remained involved in a broader conflict over state financial assistance for Chicago, during which Rauner called on Emanuel to help him convince lawmakers to approve his “pro-business, union-weakening” plan.

But CPS filed charges against the union because the district believed the one-day strike to be illegal, report Nancy Loo, Andrea Darlas, and Judy Wang for the Associated Press.

The charges were filed with the Illinois Educational Labor Relations Board based on the idea that the CTU strike does not follow the state law as it applies to teachers’ strikes. CPS seeks unspecified damages along with an order to prohibit any strikes in the future that are not within the boundaries of state law.

Forrest Claypool, the CPS chief executive officer, said the district will require a “permanent, pre-emptive injunction” against these kinds of strikes in the future. CTU responded that they would like CPS to join them in fighting for more funding for schools. They said they had broken no state laws and called this a “one- day job action” that would not happen again.

CBS News and the Associated Press report that 400,000 students were affected by the strike, but had the option of spending the day at one of the 250 “contingency sites” set up by CPS at libraries, churches, and school buildings.

Although state laws say this cannot take place until several weeks have passed, a longer strike could occur over a new labor contract. In 2012, the Chicago Teachers Union went on strike for over a week. The contract agreed upon after that contract expired in June, and the two sides continue negotiating to determine a new contract.

Illinois is in its tenth month of not having an approved state budget.